Читать книгу The Children's Story of Westminster Abbey онлайн

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We are told that in 1098 the Confessor’s tomb was opened, and that his body was found to be still in perfect preservation. Bishop Gundulph, of Rochester, alone ventured to uncover the face. The memory of Edward’s pure life, and of his goodness and charity, together with the miracles that were believed to be worked at his tomb, caused the people to honour him more and more as a saint, and in the year 1161, Pope Alexander III caused his name to be formally added to the names of the Saints of the Christian Church. In our Prayer-Books his name appears on October 13th, as King Edward the Confessor. A “confessor” means some one who has suffered for the faith of Christ without actual shedding of blood. In King Edward’s case it alludes to his exile in the time of the heathen Danes. The “Translation” of which the Prayer-Book speaks means the moving of the body into the shrine. This “Translation” took place on October 13th, 1163, when the Confessor’s body was placed in the new and splendid shrine made for it by King Henry II. This ceremony took place at midnight, and both Henry II and Archbishop Becket were present.

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